Salazar to leave Interior Department

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who oversaw a moratorium on offshore drilling after the BP oil spill and approved the Cape Wind wind farm in Nantucket Sound, will step down in March, Obama administration officials said Wednesday.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who oversaw a moratorium on offshore drilling after the BP oil spill and approved the Cape Wind wind farm in Nantucket Sound, will step down in March, Obama administration officials said Wednesday.

Before he leaves office, Salazar could still decide whether the federal government will take land into trust for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe's $500 million casino in Taunton. That application is currently under review by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs' regional office in Nashville, Tenn.

Tribal council Chairman Cedric Cromwell issued a statement praising Salazar for his commitment to Indian country and tribes' sovereign rights.

"While we will miss his leadership, we are confident that the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe's strong relationship with the Department of the Interior will continue uninterrupted, and that much of our work concerning land in trust will in fact be completed before Secretary Salazar's departure," Cromwell said.

Earlier this week, the tribe announced that it expects a decision by the end of the month on whether the Interior Department will support its pursuit of land in Mashpee and Taunton as an initial reservation, a distinction that would give the tribe rights to Indian gaming on the land. It's just one of several hurdles to clear before the application reaches Salazar or his successor.

In February 2010, Salazar visited the Cape and Islands, touring the area in Nantucket Sound where Cape Wind is proposed. Later that year, he approved Cape Wind, making it the nation's first offshore wind farm. He pressed for a quick decision on the turbine plan and termed the nearly decadelong review of Cape Wind a "bad process" for everyone involved.

"Cape Wind will be the United States' first offshore wind farm," Salazar said when he approved the project.

He is named in several lawsuits filed over that approval.

The Interior Department under Salazar also has moved forward aggressively to zone large areas of ocean south and west of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket for offshore wind energy projects. A comment period closes Feb. 1 for lease sales in federal waters between Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Another area directly south of the Vineyard could be open for leasing to offshore wind energy developers by the end of 2013, according to federal officials.

Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Richard K. Sullivan Jr., who is Gov. Deval Patrick's point man on wind energy issues, said Salazar's "Smart from the Start" program for developing offshore wind has been instrumental in the Obama administration's renewable energy goals.

"I certainly thank Secretary Salazar for his leadership on that," Sullivan said, adding that despite Salazar's departure he was not concerned the Obama administration's focus on renewable energy would falter.

On land, Salazar has promoted solar power in the West and Southwest, approving an unprecedented number of projects, even as oil and gas projects continue to be approved on federal land.

A former senator from Colorado, Salazar pushed renewable power such as solar and wind, but gained the most attention for his role in the drilling moratorium, a key part of the administration's response to the April 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico. It was one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history and led to the unprecedented shutdown of offshore drilling.

The moratorium was lifted in October 2010, although offshore drilling operations did not begin for several more months. Some Gulf Coast lawmakers continue to complain about the slow pace of drilling permits under the Interior Department, which renamed and revamped the agency that oversees offshore drilling in the wake of the spill.

Salazar also oversaw the settlement of a multibillion dollar dispute with Native American tribes that had lingered for more than a decade.

Salazar, 57, is the latest Cabinet secretary to leave the administration as Obama heads into his second term. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Pentagon chief Leon Panetta, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis are also leaving. Energy Secretary Steven Chu is widely expected to leave, though his departure has not been announced. Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson also has announced that she will leave.